OpenClaw Security Hardening — Security Suite¶

Publisher: aradotso/security-skills | Installs: 874 | Category: Security

Automated security hardening for OpenClaw agents. Audits file permissions, network exposure, environment variables, and skill configurations — then applies security best practices. Ships with companion openclaw-security-watchdog (761 installs) for continuous monitoring.

Prerequisites¶

OpenClaw installed and running
macOS or Linux (file permission hardening is OS-specific)
Node.js 18+
npx available

Installation¶

Install both the hardening tool and watchdog together:

npx skills add aradotso/security-skills/openclaw-security-hardening
npx skills add aradotso/security-skills/openclaw-security-watchdog

Configuration¶

{
  "security": {
    "hardening": {
      "filePermissions": true,
      "envScanning": true,
      "networkRestriction": true,
      "skillAudit": true,
      "strictMode": false
    },
    "watchdog": {
      "enabled": true,
      "scanInterval": "1h",
      "alertOnViolation": true,
      "autoFix": false
    }
  }
}

Setting	Default	Description
`filePermissions`	`true`	Lock down config files to owner-only
`envScanning`	`true`	Scan environment for hardcoded secrets
`networkRestriction`	`true`	Audit outbound network access
`skillAudit`	`true`	Review installed skills for known vulnerabilities
`strictMode`	`false`	Enforce all findings (may break some integrations)
`watchdog.autoFix`	`false`	Auto-apply fixes (set `true` for production)

Capabilities¶

File Permission Hardening¶

Scans ~/.openclaw/, skill directories, and config files
Sets owner-only permissions (600/700) on sensitive files
Detects world-readable tokens, keys, and secrets
Flags config files with group/other read access

Environment Scanning¶

Checks for hardcoded API keys in environment variables
Flags passwords and tokens in shell config files
Detects .env files with world-readable permissions
Recommends migration to secret managers

Network Restriction¶

Audits which domains the agent connects to
Flags connections to untrusted/unexpected hosts
Recommends allowlisting for production agents
Detects plaintext (non-TLS) connections

Skill Audit¶

Scans installed skills for known vulnerability patterns
Checks skill permissions and access scopes
Flags skills with excessive filesystem/network access

CLI Reference¶

Command                           Description
──────────────────────────────────────────────────
security-hardening audit          Run full security audit
security-hardening apply          Apply hardening recommendations
security-hardening permissions    Audit file permissions only
security-hardening env-scan       Scan for hardcoded secrets
security-hardening network        Audit network access

security-watchdog start           Start continuous monitoring
security-watchdog status          Show current security posture
security-watchdog alerts          View recent alerts

CorpusIQ Use Cases¶

Production agent deployment: Run hardening audit before deploying any agent to production
Compliance preparation: Generate security posture reports for SOC 2 / ISO 27001 audits
Multi-tenant environments: Ensure agent boundaries between customer data partitions
Incident response: Watchdog alerts on unexpected file modifications or network connections

Troubleshooting¶

Audit found too many issues¶

# Start without strict mode
security-hardening audit --strict=false

# Apply only critical findings first
security-hardening apply --severity=critical

# Review each finding interactively
security-hardening audit --interactive

Permission hardening broke a skill¶

# Check which file was locked down
security-hardening permissions --verbose

# Restore permissions on specific path
chmod 755 ~/.openclaw/skills/<skill-name>

# Add exception to config

Watchdog false positives¶

# Add allowed domains
security-watchdog allowlist --add api.trusted-service.com

# Tune scan sensitivity
security-watchdog config --sensitivity=medium

← Security Hardening Setup Guide | Discovery Page →

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